At the age of 32 i’ve finally taken the plunge and started to learnt to drive.
At some point i’ll have a licence and will need wheels.

Can you recommend an insurance friendly car that’s suitable for a couple of MTB’s in the back

Don’t care about status symbols, just something cheap (£1k’ish) that’s fairly reliable or easy to work on at home. Mileage will be low as i walk to work

Lancia Stratos

Ford Focus

Focus or astral sling to mind. Cheap, reliable and plentyful. I’ve had 3 bikes in the back or each in hatch version. Both also come as estates.

Focus or Golf

Am i not going to get financially crippled by the insurance on a focus though?

You’ll have just passed your test, it will cost a fair whack on most small cars. Get on some insurance comparison sites to get an idea of what you are looking at.

Am i not going to get financially crippled by the insurance on a focus though?

Generally the bigger the car, the more expensive it is to insure as they have bigger engines.

You want cheap insurance? get a 1.0l nissan micra or similar, but you won’t get your bikes in.

Alternatively – why not have a look at a larger car? Play around with insurance quotes on comparison sites.

Skoda Fabia, great value, very economical and can fit a bike in.

Sokdas are excellent value. Have a look at Kias as well. Alternatively, how about a van for security and ease of loading bikes?

MK2 VW Scirocco. Easily maintained, feels twice as fast as it is, looks awesome, builds arm muscles. Accepts flux capacitors. I easily fitted two bikes in the back (front wheels off).

Won’t lose any money (will probably appreciate) when it comes time to buy the familybubble. Couple of beauts on popular auction site atm 😉

I don’t agree with the comment about not getting bikes in a Micra. You can get your bike in pretty much any car, if you take the wheels off and put the back seats down. I passed my test aged 28 and my first car was a Daewoo Matiz. It was tiny and a bit rubbish, but it was cheap and did the job. I drove from Norfolk to Wales with me, another grown adult, two bikes and two big kit bags with no issues at all.

You’d probably get a couple of bikes in a Fiesta or Polo with a bit of creative packing, can in my 206. Actually, an old 206 wouldn’t be a bad shout either, just test EVERYTHING electrical on it. Something will still ail 2 minutes after handing over the cash, but at least you’ll feel you did your bit.
Or a rack of some sort, you’d probably save enough in insurance to buy a nice roof rack with lockable Thule bike racks.

Toyota Auris
Honda Civic

^^ Good points, I had a couple of bikes (wheels off) in my old Renault 5.

imo if you can’t make do with a toyota yaris, or a nissan micra (petrol both) and you could do a lot worse than a mk1 focus 1.8 petrol. much cheapness, and fixing it will be much cheapness too

used to do 3 bikes and 3 people in a Fiesta when I first passed (last century), jsut need to get creative with packing 🙂

dull cheap reliable = petrol nissan Almera (probably theft proof as well)

Done a bit of comparison.
2004 1.6 focus 5dr approx £1.4k TPFT
2004 1.4 fiesta 3dr approx £1.2k TPFT

both similar miles, value and spec
surprised at that, thought the cost difference would be higher.

Now know what i’m looking at price wise

Skoda Fabia estate

For 1k you can’t be fussy on Make or Model. Just have to see what’s available and what condition it is in and go from there.

Try diesel as sometimes the premiums are cheaper.

My first car was a 1.7td Cavalier, insurance came in cheaper than a 1.4 petrol Astra and even a 1.0 Fiesta, think around £700ish TPFT for the Cav vs £1200ish for the Astra and it was brilliant for transporting bikes.

A 1.7 Vectra might be worth looking at, not the most exciting but should swallow bikes.

If you don’t need a car don’t rule out going straight for a van! My Vauxhall Combo 1.3cdti with no no claims to use against it…although have full no claims on my car cost me less than £300 to insure for private domestic pleasure with Aviva….. And renewal price came in super cheap too, as cheap as the best comparison website quotes!

My Nissan Almera was always cheap to insure in 1.4 guise. Mine was an old shape pre x-reg I think.

Chain cam-engine, micra like reliability and 40mpg on a run.

Comfy enough on a long run.

Look for rust in the sills or evidence of welding.

If the heater only works on low or full it’s a £30 fix with a part from a scrappy.

5 door doesn’t look quite as good but is more practical.

Quite a few around for less that £500 Autotrader search results

Get quotes for fully comprehensive insurance too; surprisingly it can be cheaper! Your age should help considerably as you’re no longer in the “riskiest” group.

I passed my test at 32, insured an ancient Astra for £650 and then after ten months a bimmer 320i for ‘only’ £870 ish which I thought wasn’t too bad.

I think I went with Tesco insurance for the Astra btw. Also if you’re happy to ramp up the voluntary excess to £500 or beyond it can help loads with the premium.

For my first car I got an old, low-spec Focus estate with a bilge pump for an engine- the last car a boy racer would buy so it was cheap to insure. And supremely practical, til the clutch fell off anyway. Foci seem to have a bit of a price premium though.

Small cars can be cheaper to insure, but they’re also often popular choices for new drivers so that can weight the car a little.

You’ll have just passed your test, it will cost a fair whack on most small cars. Get on some insurance comparison sites to get an idea of what you are looking at.

might not be as bad as you think – age is a bigger factor than the length of time license held. Actually small vulnerable racy cars which young drivers tend to smack into trees killing or maiming the passengers are a higher insurance risk than boring “grandad” / “family” cars. Older dull cars tend to be stolen less too.

dull cheap reliable = petrol nissan Almera (probably theft proof as well)

My Nissan Almera was always cheap to insure in 1.4 guise. Mine was an old shape pre x-reg I think.

Chain cam-engine, micra like reliability and 40mpg on a run.

Comfy enough on a long run.

Look for rust in the sills or evidence of welding.

If the heater only works on low or full it’s a £30 fix with a part from a scrappy.

5 door doesn’t look quite as good but is more practical.

Quite a few around for less that £500 Autotrader search results

Very very good shout. I don’t remember the insurance being massively cheap though, pretty sure my S Max was less than the Almera (that was 17 years old when it finally got binned).

Wish I’d known about that heater fix, I was told it’d cost a chunk so I never bothered and looked no further into it 😀

Toyota aygo. I can get my mtb in mine with both wheels off. Free insurance with the new one too.

T1000 – Member

dull cheap reliable = petrol nissan Almera

Something like this that the yoof don’t buy and so should perhaps be cheaper to insure as less ‘risky’ to the insurance company.

That or an older Daewoo/Kia/Hyundai/Honda.

Renault Clio

the diesels are pretty reliable and frugal, they’re comfy, cheap to work on, cheap to insure, and cheap to tax (my 1.5 diesel was £35 a year) easily get two bikes in the back with wheels off, and seats folded.

Obviously not the latest but between 8 – 10 yrs old from the list below:

Toyota Aygo/Yaris/Corolla/Auris
Nissan Micra
Honda Civic/Jazz
Mazda 3/2
Hyundai i10/i20/i30
Skoda Fabia/Octavia
VW Polo/citigo/Golf
Suzuki Swift

RopeyReignRider – Member

Get quotes for fully comprehensive insurance too; surprisingly it can be cheaper!

+1, or the increase can be negligible and worthwhile having the piece of mind. Also if you have a partner who drivers (or even you parents if you still live with them.. no slight intended), ask about adding them to ‘your’ policy, as this surprisingly lowers the price…

Either TP or Comp, and only look at Comp because it might be cheaper than TP.

Ignore TPFT as it’ll be dearer than TP (and possibly Comp).

And whatever happens, if you are spending £1k on a car the only insurance claim you’ll want to make is if you damage someone elses (or them).

Size/value of car is also pretty immaterial (within reason), as the biggest possible cost is you running someone over and/or crashing into them and injuring them. Therefore it is all about ‘risk’.

And with a £1k car, you just need luck that you buy a good one.

I’ve been playing around a lot on the comparison site and it’s looking like the more boring slighty larger cars e.g. 307 estate vs 207 hatchback would come out the same for me to insure! Even though they’d be more powerful and bigger
As the fully comp quotes are the same as TP or TPFT for me i might as well go for that when the time comes.

Adding another named driver isn’t making any difference though, but may need to look into that when i need to.

This has been a bit of an eye-opener tbh.

Thanks for all the advice on cars folks

Adding another named driver isn’t making any difference though, but may need to look into that when i need to.

No, when you choose insurance put ALL requirements in at the beginning as Admin charges (and companies not wanting risk) will be expensive (unable).

Try adding you Mum, Dad or someone in their late 50’s/early 60’s. They don’t ever need to drive the car. With my son it knocked nearly £1k off.

as an alternative why not lease a new car something small like a up/citigo/mii with an ultra low Insurance Group.

use a roof rack for bikes

your total motoring Costs may well be lower than running a banger…

low mpg..low Insurance .low or no VED..no maintenance Costs …. no mot or tyres

bangernomics can work really well as long as you know when to move on to the next one

No, when you choose insurance put ALL requirements in at the beginning as Admin charges (and companies not wanting risk) will be expensive (unable).

I’m doing my research, not buying the insurance at the moment. It’s theory for now

TBh If I was learning again I’d get a Honda Jazz. Reliable compared to Peugot of a similar era and better.